ABSTRACT
Whistler’s 1894 lithographic portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé (Figure 5.1), the frontispiece for the poet’s anthology, Vers et prose, masterfully summons the poet through omission. His sharply rendered head is immersed in a morass of parallel strokes that simultaneously conceal and reveal his upper body. Like the ineffability at the heart of Mallarméan aesthetics, in this portrait the poet seems to be going in and out of focus as he hovers within an immersive, white atmosphere. Mallarmé responded: “This portrait is marvelous; the only thing which has ever been done of me that makes me smile.”1 In each one’s respective medium, poet and painter freed the void of the paper to “sing” in tune with text or image.
